The People's Agenda 2013

Published: Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 11:59 p.m.

The Ledger published its “2013 Agenda for Progress” editorial Jan. 1, laying out public-policy priorities for the new year. As part of the agenda-setting process, the newspaper asked readers to write in with goals of their own to be accomplished by local- or state-government officials in 2013. This is “The People's Agenda.”

GUN REGULATION: Regulate guns like cars — require a class, test, learning permit and license for every weapon sold. Renewal every four years to eight years, for obvious reasons.

Require all home-owners living on water to be banned from use of herbicides and pesticides for protection of ground water.

Require people to recycle and charge a fine if recyclables are found in garbage. This would reduce waste in landfills and the need for incineration.

RITA RYAN

Lake Wales

GUN OWNERS: Pass a gun-owner-accountability law. If your weapon and/or ammunition are stolen and used in a crime, you are an accessory.

Ensure legislative accountability, and open information on slush funds and party accounts. Who are the donors? For what are the funds used?

Make talking on a cellphone, texting, emailing, etc., illegal while driving, and make it a primary offense.

DEE HOWARD

Lakeland

MILITARY-STYLE GUNS: The state should outlaw all military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Require weapons now in possession of citizens to be registered. If they are not, the owners should face hefty fines and confiscation.

All such weapons should be under lock and key, preventing their use by unauthorized persons. And all weapons should be registered.

WILLIAM F. LANDRUM

Lakeland

SCHOOL DEFENSE: The state Department of Education should consider putting a couple of school employees (teacher, janitor, para or substitutes) who are qualified and have training in shooting-defense training and be armed in every school. No one should know who they are, other than the principal and assistant principal, and any law-enforcement person assigned to those schools. The only cost would be getting these people through training.

WILLIAM SIMPKINS

Bartow

TEXTING WHILE DRIVING: Ban texting while driving in Florida.

Provide a tri-county shuttle service from Tampa to Orlando via Interstate 4 for tourists and employment opportunities. This would decrease pollution and provide alternative to using gasoline-powered cars.

PATRICIA WATTS

Winter Haven

TEXTING WHILE DRIVING: Texting while driving should be a primary offense. Research shows that texting while driving is six to eight times more dangerous than drinking while driving — DUI offenders receive severe consequences. The number of accidents and fatalities because of texting while behind the wheel is on the rise. The general public is at an extremely high risk of accident every time we get on the road. Our state officials need to address this urgent matter.

SUZANNE RICHTER

Lakeland

CELLPHONES AND DRIVING: Do something about the use of cellphones while driving. Changing the law would save lives.

JO SCHWARK

Lakeland

TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY: Consider creating a transportation authority for Polk County using the Polk Transportation Planning Organization. Allow cities to share the 1 mill tax for roads.

Continue to focus on jobs by organizing a countywide ecodevelopment organization linking LEDC, CFDC, HDC and Winter Haven with hospitals, educational institutions, and large and small businesses.

Consider creating a Polk Health Care Plan czar to lead the community on health care issues for the people and underserved on several community fronts.

MICHAEL HERR

Lakeland

CAMPAIGN FINANCING: Reduce the influence of big money in politics by mandatory financing of campaigns from public funds and all political contributions into a blind trust.

Make all primary elections open, without the voter declaring a political party, and the voter being able to vote for any candidate in any party.

FLOYD E. MILLER

Haines City

BOTTLE BILL: Pass returnable-bottle legislation. This would help to curb litter strewn over highways and roadsides.

Put front and rear license plates on vehicles. Had there been a front plate, the murderer of a convenience store clerk would not have gone on to kill two ladies in Lake Wales, because his car would have been immediately identified.

Restore taxes on unearned income. A society and culture cannot survive without revenue.

SHARON ALLEN

Lake Wales

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: There should be more state laws to protect our environment (our trees, woods, lakefronts, rivers, the aquifer, etc.). Developers should be required to submit a plan with locations of proposed homes, roads, etc., to protect as many existing trees, woods and green spaces as possible. There are local ordinances that protect cabbage palms, our state tree. There should be a state law.

Enforce anti-litter laws. Increase the penalties for littering.

There should be a constant effort to rid our state of pythons. and other exotic animals and plants, not just a one-month attempt.

DOROTHY COSTINE BAGGETT

Lakeland

FERTILIZER ORDINANCE: Excess nutrients are a major factor in causing algae blooms, fish kills, red tide and deteriorating spring water. By September 2013, local governments are required to adopt a local urban fertilizer ordinance.

With more than 500 lakes and five rivers, our ordinance needs to be more effective than the state model.

Additionally, Polk is phosphate country. If fertilizer is used, the bag should read 14 nitrogen (50 percent slow release) — 0 phosphate — 26 potash. Fertilizing should be strongly discouraged — indeed, prohibited — in the rainy season because of the minerals and chemicals washing into our lakes and streams.

Storm-water runoff is foul with nutrients and heavy metals. Under the verdict of a lawsuit based on the Clean Water Act of 1972, if local governments don't act in a responsible manner to clean up storm-water discharges, the local government can be fined $10,000 a day. Polk needs to enact a storm-water fee and not try to pay for the mandated storm-water projects out of its general budget because 13 Polk towns already have storm-water fees.

FRANCES HOWELL-COLEMAN

Winter Haven

POLK COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: The 2012 County Commission and the Planning Commission agreed during a joint meeting Oct. 15 that the Polk land-development staff should conduct countywide public hearings and use the public input to recommend appropriate changes to the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Code — complete in 2013.

Those members should carry through with the 2012 initiative to determine measures to ensure appropriate development in Polk County in the future. An important issue is the amount of separation required between 24-hour and late-hour businesses, and established residential neighborhoods.

Today, 24-hour and late-hour businesses include, but are not limited to, bars, nightclubs, fast-food establishments and combined mega-gas stations (seven to 24 pumps) and convenience store operations. When such business are located near established residential neighborhoods, they have a negative impact on health and quality of life.

LORETTA OURS

Lakeland

PARK COMPLETION: Finish what you start. The Northeast Polk County park needs to be completed with baseball fields and the dog park, as promised.

? Make education a priority for children, vets and adults alike.

? Make sure people have access to health care, especially mental health care.

JOE and GILLIAN WOLFE

Davenport

CITY TRANSPORTATION: Develop a better city transportation system.

? Put a stop to insurance companies that keep putting their hands in our pockets, even if we don't have accidents, tickets or DUIs.

? There should be something the government could do about the cost of food. It is too expensive. I have to go to bed hungry at times.

LUIS MORALES

Lakeland

I-4 COMMUTER TRAIN: The state needs a commuter train to relieve the congestion on Interstate 4. Tampa to Ocala is the way to go, with stops in Lakeland, Winter Haven, Haines City, Orlando, etc. This would be a great service to the people (please, not a bullet train).

LINDA LAUSTRA

Winter Haven

SPORT FUNDING: Appropriate no tax funds for professional sports facilities. Teams should pay for their own facilities and receive no tax breaks.

Tighten the Stand Your Ground law.

Provide more clinics for the poor uninsured. Improve Medicaid coverage.

KAREN DONALDSON

Winter Haven

IMPACT FEES: Impact fees have been reduced or eliminated in many areas, but they should be increased. People already here should not have to pay for the impact of new growth.

Rather than build new houses, municipalities should encourage renovation of old ones.

People on unemployment compensation should be required to do 20 hours a week of community service. This would encourage them to look harder for a new job.

No tax money should be spent on sporting events. Let professional teams succeed or fail as a regular business must. Let the Detroit Tigers pay for the total maintenance of Joker Marchant Stadium.

O.L. CARPENTER

Lakeland

STATE INCOME TAX: A most pressing need is the enactment by the state of a progressive income tax with revenue sharing with local governments. The tax would make our public-finance system fairer and more adequate in meeting our needs.

CHARLES E. RATLIFF

Lakeland

ILLEGAL-ALIEN LAWS: The state, county and local governments should initiate enforcing the illegal-alien laws and handing the illegals over to the federal Immigration and Border Patrol.

The state, county and local agencies controlling our social services should ensure that those being served are citizens of this country.

Our governor, who was voted into office to represent us, should live up to those promises he made instead of backtracking.

Our county officials should realize that we just cannot continue to build parks, libraries and other services that our population does not warrant and cannot continue to be taxed to support. They should initiate a use fee.

ROGER F. BRYCE

Winter Haven

SCHOOL TUTORS: Hire retired people at minimum wage to work with accredited teachers during class hours tutoring children who are having trouble making academic progress.

Return the privatized prisons, detention centers and children's welfare programs to their respective public agencies to be run by the public agencies with public employees, thereby eliminating the incentive to cut services in order to make more profit.

Require all public buildings to have solar panels on their roofs within a reasonable length of time.

JO ANN HOLMES

Lakeland

EDUCATION CONTINUITY: The level of education in Polk County would be greatly improved with the elimination of constant, unjustified, scheduled interruptions. This includes early release, some teachers' work days, career-shadowing days, a weeklong Thanksgiving vacation (shortly before an even longer winter vacation). This does not include national holidays and summer vacation. Students and families cannot be expected to take education seriously without consistency and continuity.

The quality of education in Polk County public schools would also rise dramatically if teachers were no longer subjected to numerous evaluations throughout the year. Yes, there needs to be accountability, but what is going on amounts to harassment and intimidation, and stifles creativity and enthusiasm for the job.

Refocus on learning, not on testing. To measure a student's competency, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test must to be terminated and replaced with tests reasonably designed by educators.

JUDY BUSS

Lakeland

EDUCATION IN FLORIDA: Our education system is in a shambles not only in Polk County but Florida as a whole. Our children are not being led in the right direction to not only be ready to move onto college, but to be ready to be productive members of society.

We no longer need teachers to teach to test (the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) but test to teachings.

Take a look at most cities to see how a new tax is spent and one would be alarmed. The moving of funds from one place, and replacing with a new tax or impact fee does not do what it is supposed to do to help.

If the property tax was a set amount for all homes, regardless of value, and each additional service were put in place for all households, more revenue would be collected, and the up and down of revenue would end. Start with $500 for each house, add in a fire fee, a library fee, a parks-and-recreation fee and a public-safety fee.

When looking at violent crime and mass shootings, they are at the lowest rate they have been in more than 80 years.

Holding people responsible for the guns they have should be a priority. Making sure they keep them locked up and out of reach of those who could potentially be a threat.

MICHAEL TEAGUE

Lake Alfred

RELIGION IN SCHOOLS: Institute prayer time and Bible reading in all Florida schools to give children a moral code to live by and a road map to eternal salvation.

Ban abortion and acknowledged homosexual unions to better align with God's will, as expressed in his written word.

Ban pornography in Florida, including Internet, to remove a stumbling block that destroys marriages and families.

CLAUDE SMITH

Winter Haven

SCHOOL DISTRICT STAFF: Schools should cut back the number of people in Bartow. Put the money into the classrooms.

Polk County should charge the impact fees on all buildings in the county. That helps with roads, schools.

Have government workers in Washington all take a 20 percent cut in pay. Put that money toward the debt.

SUE PRINCE

Auburndale

DISASTER PREPARATION: Regarding disaster preparation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida Division of Emergency Management program called "Resolve to be Ready in 2013": Promoting innovative camping equipment production and sales, and one day off-the-grid practice sessions, will create new jobs.

Promote local food production, a la the book "The Town Food Saved."

Promote horse-culture businesses and sporting events such as horse soccer and broomstick polo as tourist attractions for job creation.

KEYNO HICKS

Lakeland

ROADSIDE TRASH: An improved-and-streamlined system for picking up trash and large discarded articles on the roadside. Eyesores.

Improve methods of dealing with the denuding of the shoreline of the Chain of Lakes. Violators go unpunished.

Increase the number of red-light cameras at intersections. The reason for increased rear-end accidents is some people now stop and others do not heed the law.

ISABEL A. LEWIS

Winter Haven

LAKE SHIPP DRIVE: Fix the road (gutters) and put sidewalk on north Lake Shipp Drive. It is dangerous to walk or ride a bike.

Dredge the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes canals. Water levels are low and seems to be the norm, so dredge canals deeper and widen them to the seawalls for pontoon boats.

Continue placing sidewalks all around Lake Howard. The part that is done is great but complete the loop, and we will have something special.

PAUL and HELEN GOULET

Winter Haven

RED-LIGHT CAMERAS: Curtail the use of red-light cameras in Lakeland. They are an intrusion into the lives of citizens. Machines should never take the place of police officers.

Expand the Polk Parkway to State Road 60. Doing so would reduce traffic on U.S. 98 and State Road 37, would be a boon to Bartow and Mulberry, and tie the southern part of Polk County together with the north.

Push for a feasibility study and secure funding to mitigate rail traffic through downtown Lakeland.

HANS ARNDT

Lakeland

MOTORCYCLE PROTECTION: Stop the motorcycle massacre. Require mandatory jail time for at-fault drivers and revoke the driver's licenses for life for at-fault drivers.

LOCAL-FEDERAL LIAISON: The Polk County Commission and Lakeland City Commission should hold quarterly meetings with the public on issues to discuss with U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland.

The School Board should investigate more best practices for pedagogy. We could be leaders in the country for implementing programs that show results such as high school completions and college entrance.

The Sheriff's Office, Lakeland Police Department and other area law-enforcement agencies should consider the best process to license and register weapons only designed to kill human beings.

ALICE PETERSON

Lakeland

MEDICAL-SCHOOL CADAVERS: Change Florida law to allow bodies to be donated to medical schools directly, without a funeral home required to embalm first. California does it.

Change Polk County's name to Park County to give it a positive personality to which people can relate.

HOWIE KEEFE

Mulberry

ABANDONED BUILDINGS: Ordinances regarding abandoned and dilapidated commercial buildings on Memorial Boulevard between Combee Road and Fairway Avenue should be enforced. These have been an eyesore since we moved here in 2005.

GEORGE MILLER

Lakeland

WINTER HAVEN LANDINGS: Remove all Winter Haven commissioners. They do not possess the ability to solve the Landings deal to the benefit of the city of Winter Haven. Give Sheriff Grady Judd a raise. He seems to be head-and-shoulders above everyone else doing their jobs in Polk to the benefit of its people.

<p><i>The Ledger published its “2013 Agenda for Progress” editorial Jan. 1, laying out public-policy priorities for the new year. As part of the agenda-setting process, the newspaper asked readers to write in with goals of their own to be accomplished by local- or state-government officials in 2013. This is “The People's Agenda.”</i></p><p><b>GUN REGULATION</b>: Regulate guns like cars — require a class, test, learning permit and license for every weapon sold. Renewal every four years to eight years, for obvious reasons.</p><p>Require all home-owners living on water to be banned from use of herbicides and pesticides for protection of ground water.</p><p>Require people to recycle and charge a fine if recyclables are found in garbage. This would reduce waste in landfills and the need for incineration.</p><p>RITA RYAN</p><p>Lake Wales</p><p> </p><p><b>GUN OWNERS</b>: Pass a gun-owner-accountability law. If your weapon and/or ammunition are stolen and used in a crime, you are an accessory.</p><p>Ensure legislative accountability, and open information on slush funds and party accounts. Who are the donors? For what are the funds used?</p><p>Make talking on a cellphone, texting, emailing, etc., illegal while driving, and make it a primary offense.</p><p>DEE HOWARD</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>MILITARY-STYLE GUNS</b>: The state should outlaw all military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.</p><p>Require weapons now in possession of citizens to be registered. If they are not, the owners should face hefty fines and confiscation.</p><p>All such weapons should be under lock and key, preventing their use by unauthorized persons. And all weapons should be registered.</p><p>WILLIAM F. LANDRUM</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>SCHOOL DEFENSE</b>: The state Department of Education should consider putting a couple of school employees (teacher, janitor, para or substitutes) who are qualified and have training in shooting-defense training and be armed in every school. No one should know who they are, other than the principal and assistant principal, and any law-enforcement person assigned to those schools. The only cost would be getting these people through training.</p><p>WILLIAM SIMPKINS</p><p>Bartow</p><p> </p><p><b>TEXTING WHILE DRIVING</b>: Ban texting while driving in Florida.</p><p>Provide a tri-county shuttle service from Tampa to Orlando via Interstate 4 for tourists and employment opportunities. This would decrease pollution and provide alternative to using gasoline-powered cars.</p><p>PATRICIA WATTS</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>TEXTING WHILE DRIVING</b>: Texting while driving should be a primary offense. Research shows that texting while driving is six to eight times more dangerous than drinking while driving — DUI offenders receive severe consequences. The number of accidents and fatalities because of texting while behind the wheel is on the rise. The general public is at an extremely high risk of accident every time we get on the road. Our state officials need to address this urgent matter.</p><p>SUZANNE RICHTER</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>CELLPHONES AND DRIVING</b>: Do something about the use of cellphones while driving. Changing the law would save lives.</p><p>JO SCHWARK</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY</b>: Consider creating a transportation authority for Polk County using the Polk Transportation Planning Organization. Allow cities to share the 1 mill tax for roads.</p><p>Continue to focus on jobs by organizing a countywide ecodevelopment organization linking LEDC, CFDC, HDC and Winter Haven with hospitals, educational institutions, and large and small businesses.</p><p>Consider creating a Polk Health Care Plan czar to lead the community on health care issues for the people and underserved on several community fronts.</p><p>MICHAEL HERR</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>CAMPAIGN FINANCING</b>: Reduce the influence of big money in politics by mandatory financing of campaigns from public funds and all political contributions into a blind trust.</p><p>Make all primary elections open, without the voter declaring a political party, and the voter being able to vote for any candidate in any party.</p><p>FLOYD E. MILLER</p><p>Haines City</p><p><b>BOTTLE BILL</b>: Pass returnable-bottle legislation. This would help to curb litter strewn over highways and roadsides.</p><p>Put front and rear license plates on vehicles. Had there been a front plate, the murderer of a convenience store clerk would not have gone on to kill two ladies in Lake Wales, because his car would have been immediately identified.</p><p>Restore taxes on unearned income. A society and culture cannot survive without revenue.</p><p>SHARON ALLEN</p><p>Lake Wales</p><p> </p><p><b>ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION</b>: There should be more state laws to protect our environment (our trees, woods, lakefronts, rivers, the aquifer, etc.). Developers should be required to submit a plan with locations of proposed homes, roads, etc., to protect as many existing trees, woods and green spaces as possible. There are local ordinances that protect cabbage palms, our state tree. There should be a state law.</p><p>Enforce anti-litter laws. Increase the penalties for littering.</p><p>There should be a constant effort to rid our state of pythons. and other exotic animals and plants, not just a one-month attempt.</p><p>DOROTHY COSTINE BAGGETT</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>FERTILIZER ORDINANCE</b>: Excess nutrients are a major factor in causing algae blooms, fish kills, red tide and deteriorating spring water. By September 2013, local governments are required to adopt a local urban fertilizer ordinance.</p><p>With more than 500 lakes and five rivers, our ordinance needs to be more effective than the state model.</p><p>Additionally, Polk is phosphate country. If fertilizer is used, the bag should read 14 nitrogen (50 percent slow release) — 0 phosphate — 26 potash. Fertilizing should be strongly discouraged — indeed, prohibited — in the rainy season because of the minerals and chemicals washing into our lakes and streams.</p><p>Storm-water runoff is foul with nutrients and heavy metals. Under the verdict of a lawsuit based on the Clean Water Act of 1972, if local governments don't act in a responsible manner to clean up storm-water discharges, the local government can be fined $10,000 a day. Polk needs to enact a storm-water fee and not try to pay for the mandated storm-water projects out of its general budget because 13 Polk towns already have storm-water fees.</p><p>FRANCES HOWELL-COLEMAN</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>POLK COMPREHENSIVE PLAN</b>: The 2012 County Commission and the Planning Commission agreed during a joint meeting Oct. 15 that the Polk land-development staff should conduct countywide public hearings and use the public input to recommend appropriate changes to the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Code — complete in 2013.</p><p>Those members should carry through with the 2012 initiative to determine measures to ensure appropriate development in Polk County in the future. An important issue is the amount of separation required between 24-hour and late-hour businesses, and established residential neighborhoods.</p><p>Today, 24-hour and late-hour businesses include, but are not limited to, bars, nightclubs, fast-food establishments and combined mega-gas stations (seven to 24 pumps) and convenience store operations. When such business are located near established residential neighborhoods, they have a negative impact on health and quality of life.</p><p>LORETTA OURS</p><p>Lakeland</p><p><b>PARK COMPLETION</b>: Finish what you start. The Northeast Polk County park needs to be completed with baseball fields and the dog park, as promised.</p><p>? Make education a priority for children, vets and adults alike.</p><p>? Make sure people have access to health care, especially mental health care.</p><p>JOE and GILLIAN WOLFE</p><p>Davenport</p><p> </p><p><b>CITY TRANSPORTATION</b>: Develop a better city transportation system.</p><p>? Put a stop to insurance companies that keep putting their hands in our pockets, even if we don't have accidents, tickets or DUIs.</p><p>? There should be something the government could do about the cost of food. It is too expensive. I have to go to bed hungry at times.</p><p>LUIS MORALES</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>I-4 COMMUTER TRAIN</b>: The state needs a commuter train to relieve the congestion on Interstate 4. Tampa to Ocala is the way to go, with stops in Lakeland, Winter Haven, Haines City, Orlando, etc. This would be a great service to the people (please, not a bullet train).</p><p>LINDA LAUSTRA</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>SPORT FUNDING</b>: Appropriate no tax funds for professional sports facilities. Teams should pay for their own facilities and receive no tax breaks.</p><p>Tighten the Stand Your Ground law.</p><p>Provide more clinics for the poor uninsured. Improve Medicaid coverage.</p><p>KAREN DONALDSON</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>IMPACT FEES</b>: Impact fees have been reduced or eliminated in many areas, but they should be increased. People already here should not have to pay for the impact of new growth.</p><p>Rather than build new houses, municipalities should encourage renovation of old ones.</p><p>People on unemployment compensation should be required to do 20 hours a week of community service. This would encourage them to look harder for a new job.</p><p>ROGER BERGERE</p><p>Babson Park</p><p> </p><p><b>IMPACT FEES</b>: Double the impact fee now. Let the developers and new residences pay for additional required infrastructure.</p><p>No tax money should be spent on sporting events. Let professional teams succeed or fail as a regular business must. Let the Detroit Tigers pay for the total maintenance of Joker Marchant Stadium.</p><p>O.L. CARPENTER</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>STATE INCOME TAX</b>: A most pressing need is the enactment by the state of a progressive income tax with revenue sharing with local governments. The tax would make our public-finance system fairer and more adequate in meeting our needs.</p><p>CHARLES E. RATLIFF</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>ILLEGAL-ALIEN LAWS</b>: The state, county and local governments should initiate enforcing the illegal-alien laws and handing the illegals over to the federal Immigration and Border Patrol.</p><p>The state, county and local agencies controlling our social services should ensure that those being served are citizens of this country.</p><p>Our governor, who was voted into office to represent us, should live up to those promises he made instead of backtracking.</p><p>Our county officials should realize that we just cannot continue to build parks, libraries and other services that our population does not warrant and cannot continue to be taxed to support. They should initiate a use fee.</p><p>ROGER F. BRYCE</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>SCHOOL TUTORS</b>: Hire retired people at minimum wage to work with accredited teachers during class hours tutoring children who are having trouble making academic progress.</p><p>Return the privatized prisons, detention centers and children's welfare programs to their respective public agencies to be run by the public agencies with public employees, thereby eliminating the incentive to cut services in order to make more profit.</p><p>Require all public buildings to have solar panels on their roofs within a reasonable length of time.</p><p>JO ANN HOLMES</p><p>Lakeland</p><p><b>EDUCATION CONTINUITY</b>: The level of education in Polk County would be greatly improved with the elimination of constant, unjustified, scheduled interruptions. This includes early release, some teachers' work days, career-shadowing days, a weeklong Thanksgiving vacation (shortly before an even longer winter vacation). This does not include national holidays and summer vacation. Students and families cannot be expected to take education seriously without consistency and continuity.</p><p>The quality of education in Polk County public schools would also rise dramatically if teachers were no longer subjected to numerous evaluations throughout the year. Yes, there needs to be accountability, but what is going on amounts to harassment and intimidation, and stifles creativity and enthusiasm for the job.</p><p>Refocus on learning, not on testing. To measure a student's competency, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test must to be terminated and replaced with tests reasonably designed by educators.</p><p>JUDY BUSS</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>EDUCATION IN FLORIDA</b>: Our education system is in a shambles not only in Polk County but Florida as a whole. Our children are not being led in the right direction to not only be ready to move onto college, but to be ready to be productive members of society.</p><p>We no longer need teachers to teach to test (the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) but test to teachings.</p><p>Take a look at most cities to see how a new tax is spent and one would be alarmed. The moving of funds from one place, and replacing with a new tax or impact fee does not do what it is supposed to do to help.</p><p>If the property tax was a set amount for all homes, regardless of value, and each additional service were put in place for all households, more revenue would be collected, and the up and down of revenue would end. Start with $500 for each house, add in a fire fee, a library fee, a parks-and-recreation fee and a public-safety fee.</p><p>When looking at violent crime and mass shootings, they are at the lowest rate they have been in more than 80 years.</p><p>Holding people responsible for the guns they have should be a priority. Making sure they keep them locked up and out of reach of those who could potentially be a threat.</p><p>MICHAEL TEAGUE</p><p>Lake Alfred</p><p> </p><p><b>RELIGION IN SCHOOLS</b>: Institute prayer time and Bible reading in all Florida schools to give children a moral code to live by and a road map to eternal salvation.</p><p>Ban abortion and acknowledged homosexual unions to better align with God's will, as expressed in his written word.</p><p>Ban pornography in Florida, including Internet, to remove a stumbling block that destroys marriages and families.</p><p>CLAUDE SMITH</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>SCHOOL DISTRICT STAFF</b>: Schools should cut back the number of people in Bartow. Put the money into the classrooms.</p><p>Polk County should charge the impact fees on all buildings in the county. That helps with roads, schools.</p><p>Have government workers in Washington all take a 20 percent cut in pay. Put that money toward the debt.</p><p>SUE PRINCE</p><p>Auburndale</p><p> </p><p><b>DISASTER PREPARATION</b>: Regarding disaster preparation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida Division of Emergency Management program called "Resolve to be Ready in 2013": Promoting innovative camping equipment production and sales, and one day off-the-grid practice sessions, will create new jobs.</p><p>Promote local food production, a la the book "The Town Food Saved."</p><p>Promote horse-culture businesses and sporting events such as horse soccer and broomstick polo as tourist attractions for job creation.</p><p>KEYNO HICKS</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>ROADSIDE TRASH</b>: An improved-and-streamlined system for picking up trash and large discarded articles on the roadside. Eyesores.</p><p>Improve methods of dealing with the denuding of the shoreline of the Chain of Lakes. Violators go unpunished.</p><p>Increase the number of red-light cameras at intersections. The reason for increased rear-end accidents is some people now stop and others do not heed the law.</p><p>ISABEL A. LEWIS</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>LAKE SHIPP DRIVE</b>: Fix the road (gutters) and put sidewalk on north Lake Shipp Drive. It is dangerous to walk or ride a bike.</p><p>Dredge the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes canals. Water levels are low and seems to be the norm, so dredge canals deeper and widen them to the seawalls for pontoon boats.</p><p>Continue placing sidewalks all around Lake Howard. The part that is done is great but complete the loop, and we will have something special.</p><p>PAUL and HELEN GOULET</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p> </p><p><b>RED-LIGHT CAMERAS</b>: Curtail the use of red-light cameras in Lakeland. They are an intrusion into the lives of citizens. Machines should never take the place of police officers.</p><p>Expand the Polk Parkway to State Road 60. Doing so would reduce traffic on U.S. 98 and State Road 37, would be a boon to Bartow and Mulberry, and tie the southern part of Polk County together with the north.</p><p>Push for a feasibility study and secure funding to mitigate rail traffic through downtown Lakeland.</p><p>HANS ARNDT</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>MOTORCYCLE PROTECTION</b>: Stop the motorcycle massacre. Require mandatory jail time for at-fault drivers and revoke the driver's licenses for life for at-fault drivers.</p><p>PHIL KIRK</p><p>Haines City</p><p> </p><p><b>PROPERTY INSURANCE</b>: Homeowner's insurance. Why am I forced to pay a percentage of my home's inflated value for its inflated contents?</p><p>There are long lines of traffic because of the new extension on Edgewood Drive (east of South Florida Avenue) in Lakeland. Can traffic lights be re-timed or lanes added?</p><p>BARBARA ROBILLARD</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>WELFARE, DRUG TESTING</b>: On a state level, institute drug testing for individuals receiving welfare or unemployment benefits.</p><p>LINDA KING</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>LOCAL-FEDERAL LIAISON</b>: The Polk County Commission and Lakeland City Commission should hold quarterly meetings with the public on issues to discuss with U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland.</p><p>The School Board should investigate more best practices for pedagogy. We could be leaders in the country for implementing programs that show results such as high school completions and college entrance.</p><p>The Sheriff's Office, Lakeland Police Department and other area law-enforcement agencies should consider the best process to license and register weapons only designed to kill human beings.</p><p>ALICE PETERSON</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>MEDICAL-SCHOOL CADAVERS</b>: Change Florida law to allow bodies to be donated to medical schools directly, without a funeral home required to embalm first. California does it.</p><p>Change Polk County's name to Park County to give it a positive personality to which people can relate.</p><p>HOWIE KEEFE</p><p>Mulberry</p><p> </p><p><b>ABANDONED BUILDINGS</b>: Ordinances regarding abandoned and dilapidated commercial buildings on Memorial Boulevard between Combee Road and Fairway Avenue should be enforced. These have been an eyesore since we moved here in 2005.</p><p>GEORGE MILLER</p><p>Lakeland</p><p> </p><p><b>WINTER HAVEN LANDINGS</b>: Remove all Winter Haven commissioners. They do not possess the ability to solve the Landings deal to the benefit of the city of Winter Haven. Give Sheriff Grady Judd a raise. He seems to be head-and-shoulders above everyone else doing their jobs in Polk to the benefit of its people.</p><p>SIDNEY PODWIN</p><p>Winter Haven</p><p><script></script></p>